Can disincarnate spirits, or the souls of deceased persons, provide us help in healing, such as in the ministry of spiritual healing and in the practice of energy medicine? As a physician and theologian with a life-long interest in spiritual healing, I sought an answer to this question. First, I assessed the extent of Biblical support for physicalism, the belief that we are purely physical beings, and dualism, the belief that we are physical beings who have an immortal soul, or incarnated spirit. This led me to consider how Christianity has attempted to resolve the issue of physicalism versus dualism, and to realize how the near-death experience (NDE) has become a real-life challenge to physicalism by indicating the existence of disincarnate spirits. Next, I considered how possible help from disincarnate spirits in healing might be explained by energy medicine. Finally, I evaluated what is currently known about the nature of disincarnate spirit existence and how disincarnate spirits might help in healing, found many examples of this help being provided in the healing ministries of Harry Edwards (1893-1976) and John of God (1942- ). As summarized in my recently-published book, Spiritual Healing: Help from the Spirit World, this endeavour led me to conclude that that disincarnate spirits can provide us with help in healing, based on five presumptions.

I found that overall, the Holy Bible gives much greater support to physicalism than to dualism. As is reflected in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, the ancient Hebrews believed in physicalism in spite of their having been directly exposed to the cultures of Egypt, Canaan, and Babylon, which believed in dualism. In the New Testament, the only indication of dualism in the Gospels is in Luke (23:43), where Jesus says to the criminals who were being crucified with him, “‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’” Otherwise, single passages that indicate possible belief in dualism are contained in two authentic letters of the Apostle Paul (2 Cor 5:1,2 and Phil 1:22, 23), which seem to contradict Paul’s strongly-stated need for resurrection of the physical body (1 Cor 15:20-22), and in the anonymous letter to the Hebrews (Heb 4:12).

Early Christianity rejected dualism as coming from a pagan source, specifically Platonist philosophy, until Augustine of Hippo (350-430) resolved the physicalism-versus-dualism issue by saying that we have an immortal soul which upon our death becomes a non-spatial spirit until the return of Christ at the end of the present age, when the spirit will rejoin its body. This enabled the early Church to picture a just-disincarnated spirit as receiving divine judgment, and based on whether or not the spirit is that of a human who has committed a mortal sin, either being sent to Heaven to await reunion with its resurrected body, or being sent to Hell as a place of eternal torment through being estranged from God. The Roman Catholic Church embraced this “combined” dualism-physicalism theology except for the medieval add-on of purgatory, which is viewed as a place to which to God can send spirits of deceased persons for various periods of time for expatiation for non-mortal sins before these spirits enter into Heaven. A large segment of the Protestant Church, however, has remained physicalist, and so it would be against discussing the question of whether disincarnate spirits can provide help in healing. I have estimated that in the United States, approximately 55 percent of the total of 62 million members in its 15 largest Protestant denominations are likely physicalists.

I discovered that a strong case can be made for survival of the soul after death from studies and reports of various phenomena that point to survival of our consciousness, which is regarded as our soul’s key aspect. These phenomena include the out-of-body experience (OBE), the NDE, the after-death communication, the past-life experience and the inter-life experience. Whenever I am challenged on the veracity of dualism, refer to NDEs because of the mass of highly-credible data on them. Also, I recall what two persons have told me about their NDEs, and refer to books that two medical professionals have written about their NDEs.

I considered what we currently know about the spirit world and its connection to us, from documented spirit communications that led to Spiritism and from after-death communications by the disincarnate spirit of Reverend Dr. A. D. Mattson. Spiritism is the moral philosophy and observational science derived from superior-spirit answers to 1,019 carefully-prepared questions asked by mediums, and compiled by the French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (1804-1869) and published by him in The Spirits’ Book under his pen name of Allan Kardec. A seminary professor with metaphysical interests in life, Rev. Dr. Mattson conveyed his impressions of the spirit world based on his state of spirit development. Both the Spiritist and Mattson sources of information about the nature of spirit existence describe the passage of spirits through planes of intellectual and moral development over eons of time, to eventually reach an intimate relationship with God. Experience for spirit progress is obtained from multiple incarnations on Earth and interim “life” in the spirit world. One opportunity for experience during spirit life is giving guidance, support and protection to us on Earth. Although neither The Spirits’ Book nor Dr. Mattson specifically state that one of the possible services that a disincarnate spirit can provide is help in energy healing, they strongly suggest that this is probable.

In the process of seeking an answer to whether disincarnate spirits can provide us help in healing, I studied energy medicine and became a practitioner of it. This led me to believe in the existence of a universal vital life force energy – for me, the energy of God’s Spirit - which has the property to heal. This also led me to believe that we have a subtle energy body which both supports and reflects our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. As a practitioner, I channel universal vital life force energy to a patient’s subtle energy body to strengthen and balance it, and thus facilitate the healing of a health problem or relieve distress from it.

My study of and experience in energy medicine suggested to me that if a disincarnate spirit can help in healing, it would be by “intelligently” guiding universal vital life force energy so that it optimally serves its purpose. I found that this has been has been clearly shown in the healing ministry of the late Harry Edwards, a non-trance medium who “attuned” with spirits for direct and absent healing, and the healing ministry of John of God, a full-trance medium who is incorporated by disincarnate spirits for these forms of healing. I have documented many examples of spirit-involved healing in their ministries - for Edwards from his book, The Healing Intelligence, and for John of God from the notes I made during numerous personal observations of John of God’s ministry over a 15-year period.

From considering the nature of disincarnate spirit existence and the spiritual healing ministries of Harry Edwards and John of God, I believe that disincarnate spirits can provide us help in healing, supported by the following five presumptions:
• We have an immortal soul, or spirit, which over eons of time repeatedly transitions from the spirit world to the mortal world and back to the spirit world in order to have experiences in both worlds that enable it to advance intellectually and morally through planes of perfection, and eventually reach an intimate relationship with God.
• Disincarnate spirits continually interact with us in various ways, one by providing us help in direct and absent healing.
• The help in healing that disincarnate spirits can provide us is the intelligent guidance of universal vital life force energy.
• We can serve as channels for universal vital life force energy and as mediums for its guidance by disincarnate spirits. Both of these abilities exist in most, if not all of us.
• The disincarnate spirits who guide universal vital life force energy for help in healing have acquired medical expertise to do this work.